Im looking at you Jehovah.
If a god demands your soul for background operations, they’re a daemon.
Wouldn’t God be the Kernel and us the Daemons?
Deus ex machina.
If there were a god, and the god demands your soul, then it was never your soul to begin with.
You basically had a license to use a soul while you were alive.
Theological enshittification.
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I know religion isn’t exactly the most popular topic on Lemmy, but I wanted to offer a Christian perspective on this.
“God demands your soul for eternity, so he must be a demon.”
This argument fundamentally misunderstands biblical theology and relies on Hollywood tropes rather than the text.
First, God doesn’t need to “demand” or bargain for your soul because He already owns it. As the Creator, Ezekiel 18:4 flat out says, “Behold, all souls are mine.” You can’t demand or bargain for property you already hold the deed to.
Secondly, God’s ownership doesn’t magically end if a person rejects Him. Pop culture paints a picture where God gets the souls of the saved, and Satan claims the souls of the damned. That’s Dante’s Inferno, not the Bible. Satan isn’t the ruler of Hell collecting souls; he will be a prisoner punished alongside them.
Even for those who reject God and are cast into the fire, God remains entirely sovereign over them. Matthew 10:28 makes this clear: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
TL;DR: God isn’t a demon trying to snatch your soul. He is the rightful owner giving you a choice to spend eternity with Him as an adopted heir, or separated from Him in the fire, but He maintains absolute authority over your soul either way.
“god owns your soul” : therefore we have no true freedom and god is a gaslighting monster, and not worthy of my time.
“God does not own your soul” : Therefore I am free and god wants what is not his, and not worthy of my time
That presents a false dichotomy by assuming “ownership” automatically equals “coercion.”
God’s ownership of your soul simply means He is the Creator and the source of your existence. However, owning your existence does not mean He overrides your personal agency. The entire biblical narrative is actually built on the reality of human free will.
Having a Creator doesn’t strip you of true freedom. In fact, you have the absolute freedom to choose who you serve. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes this choice, such as in Joshua 24:15 which says, “choose this day whom you will serve.” The Apostle Paul also points out in Romans 6:16 that we all ultimately choose what we dedicate our lives to, whether that is sin or obedience.
God isn’t forcing your hand or gaslighting you. He gives you the ultimate choice. You can use your freedom to align with your Creator, or you can use your free will to reject Him. He actually respects your autonomy enough to let you walk away and have exactly what you chose.
ownership is coercion, for if not coercion, it’s force
respect the choice!? choose wrong and burn in hell!
some fuckin choice
It really is a shame on Lemmy that there’s generally a tone of dismissal when it comes to religion, even though it’s one of many things that I believe is to each their own. I’m glad you wrote this out, it’s succinctly put.
it reads like fantasy
there’s better fantasy novels
I feel to each their own for all of the religions who feel the same to people who aren’t members of their religion. The ones that say people outside their group are evil or deserving of enslavement or torture, spread through violence and colonialism, or try to legislate their religious, faith-based beliefs in government should be dismissed.
Depends on your religion…
Gnostics would disagree with most of what’s written here and would largely side with OP.
I’m not extremely familiar with gnosticism, but I don’t believe they think God is a demon. I think a lot of what they believe is based on duality right?
They literally believe God is an evil God and that’s why suffering exists in the world. It’s also why people who increase others suffering are rewarded in this world.
Just this god of this failed material realm that we’re in.
They believe this reality was a mistake and the god of it is an imposter who’s either gormless or actively cruel, depending on which sect.
There is a higher realm above this one though with the true big daddy good guy god in it, and that’s who Jesus was on about in the new testament.
Jesus is more like a prophet to gnostics as he’s the first one to pick up on and preach about the higher realm god.
(I’ve been weirdly into learning about gnosticism lately, it’s fascinating stuff.)
Was Jesus talking about the higher realm God in the gnostic gospels?
If he’s talking about how loving and kind god is, it’s the higher realm one.
The demiurge is the insane temper tantrum of a god described in the old testament.
So a license.
More like a slave. Licensees have the option to freely opt out, slaves face punishment if they try.
Ezekiel 18:4
Old testament, it doesn’t count and it’s ignored by most christians on earth. Nice try anyway.
That is a massive caricature of Christian theology. Saying the Old Testament “doesn’t count” confuses the Old Covenant with the Old Testament scriptures.
Christians believe the specific laws of the Old Covenant (like animal sacrifices, temple rituals, or dietary restrictions) were fulfilled by Christ. However, the Old Testament itself is still foundational scripture that reveals God’s nature, history, and character.
God’s status as the Creator of the universe did not suddenly expire between the Old and New Testaments. Ezekiel 18:4 is simply stating an unchangeable fact about God’s role as the author of life.
If you strictly want New Testament verses that establish the exact same concept of God owning everything because He made it, there are plenty. Colossians 1:16 says that “all things were created through him and for him.” Revelation 4:11 also states that God created all things, and by His will they existed and were created.
The New Testament is built directly on top of the Old Testament, and Jesus quoted it constantly. Claiming that Christians just ignore it is historically and theologically false.
Yeah, you should tell that to the billions of catholics out there.
Jehovah? YHWH more like it. Some bum ass storm god from farmers becomes the Christian solo god despite having a whole ass pantheon of other gods.
Explain. Everything I know of Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai is that they’re the Demiurge in their mythos, not a storm god.
I also know that Allah had a pantheon, but never heard of the same for Yahweh
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh found this about Yahweh. Suggests starting as a weather/war god before absorbing the rest of the pantheon into themselves. El was the top of that pantheon
Aren’t they all just the same God under different names?
As far as I know, yes, except Allah who came from a different pantheon and absorbed the mythos from jehovah
Not sure if this answers your questions but I read a book several years ago that argued something similar.
Man. That wiki states that book takes “Stockholm Syndrome” at face value, which makes me immediately suspicious. Hostages working to secure their own safety when the assigned negotiator is absolute shite isn’t a basis for actual psychological discussions.
You have reached step one towards gnosticism lol. I dont believe it but learning about Yaldabaoth is like cool fanfiction for an agnostic/atheist
if anyone is so inclined, check out the song Original Sinsuality by Tori Amos, my introduction to these other gods
isn’t it more your allowed in.
Allowed implies that you have a choice in the matter. The choice was made for you, though. You follow a particular doctrine as closely as possible. If the big man approves, you go up. Otherwise, down. There is no choosing allowed, except in your dilemma between instinct and faith. You may choose to police your reactions via the authority of your faith. That’s still not a choice on where you go after death, though. It’s a leap of faith toward a hypothetical predetermined outcome.
One could never be the perfect follower and also choose to go down. That was never part of the arrangement.
no choice if you go down but im not sure about the up. Supposedly everyone who went up could not get in till jesus died so they bummed around the entrance or such. guess it depends on if your dealing with the one that has limbo and purgatory or not.
Does he though? You have to jump through quite some hoops for him to accept your soul at all.
Jehova created a religion so souls would stay free from sin and head towards the light at death. He’s an ethereal angler fish and needs to feed. Sin is less nourishing.
He just wants to keep all the good ones. The bad and rotten ones can go to his fallen disciple.
I have a hard time believing in god, souls, eternity, and demons, so it’s a moot point.
Wow I really fucking love this
Fun little coincidence, it’s a screen grab from this video I was watching about Gnosticism earlier today.
This homie gets it. Stupid Yaldabaoth causing all this BS.
Call in Momon
Oh great. Now you tell me…
One’s personal opinion on the matter doesn’t really weigh much. For an actual believer their own god - no matter how bad - is always better than the alternative. It’s not like you become immune to it the moment you reject them. Assuming that hell is by definition the worst possible misery for everyone then, if those words mean anything, literally anything is better than that. Doesn’t need to be good, just better.
